Afghanistan

14 migrants killed by train while walking on tracks in Macedonia – police

Fourteen migrants believed to be from and Somalia have been hit by a train and killed while walking along railway tracks in Macedonia, police said on Friday.

The migrants, who were part of a group of between 30 and 40 people, were struck by a passenger train north of Veles, in central , at around 8.30pm on Thursday. The express service had been travelling from Thessaloniki, in northern Greece, to the Serbian capital, Belgrade.

Migrants and refugees using the overland route from Greece to western Europe often walk on railway lines to guide them along their way and evade police. It is fraught with danger but considered a safer route than crossing from Libya to Italy via the Mediterranean, where .

It is believed to be the highest death toll for such an accident in Macedonia.

The migrants had been heading north near the village of Rajko Zinzifov, where the tracks pass through a narrow gorge with the Vardar river on the right and steep rocky slopes to the left. The authorities said those who survived did so by clambering up the slope or clinging to bushes along the riverbank.

Ivo Kotevski, a police spokesman, said eight survivors who were uninjured and in the area when police arrived were detained and taken to Veles to be questioned by a prosecutor. The remaining survivors are believed to have fled.

The prosecutor handling the case, Slavica Temelkovski, said the migrants who were killed were aged between 20 and 30. There was no information on whether they were men or women and their identities remained unknown. She said the victims would be buried in a Muslim graveyard in Veles.

Local media reported five similar incidents along train tracks which left six migrants dead in November and December last year.

Tens of thousands of migrants and refugees attempt to reach western each year by heading from Turkey to nearby Greek islands. They then try to sneak on to ferries bound for Italy or head overland through Macedonia or Albania.

Although short, the sea journey from the Turkish coast is also perilous, with smugglers often overloading unseaworthy boats with migrants. It is not unusual for the captain to abandon the vessel after it enters Greek waters to avoid being arrested. On Monday, a wooden yacht packed with about 90 migrants .